I have been looking round the forum and general internet to find a solution. I hope that this hasnt been answered before, but nothing came up in the search

I have connected the Ethernet shield to the MEGA but I cannot get a connection to the network using any of the Example codes in the IDE 1.0.3 - Both units have been purchased in the last two weeks so should be the latest versions.

Is there something I am doing wrong - all code compiles and gets sent correctly to the board.

Things I have tried:I make sure that the MAC address is correctly assigned (I have tried assigning a made up one as well but no joy)

Setting static IP and DHCP assigned ones - no joy

removed SD card

I have seen a couple of posts regarding pins and patching them to other connections but surely the R3 shields should work directly with a mega R3 board without having to do this (the idea of a shield?)

Are you absolutely sure that the MAC address matches the device? Try using the TELNET Client example. Does ipconfig /all give you any more info? I've got a clone MEGA and the Arduino Ethernet shield comes dangerously close to the electrolytic cans (ground?) over by the power connector pins. I'm using my MEGA clone in a production environment, or I'd give it a try.

// Initialize the Ethernet client library// with the IP address and port of the server // that you want to connect to (port 80 is default for HTTP):EthernetClient client;

void setup() { // Set SPI SS pin as output. // It is not used but it needs to be output for the SPI. pinMode(53, OUTPUT); // Only for the Mega

pinMode(53, OUTPUT); // Open serial communications and wait for port to open: Serial.begin(9600); // this check is only needed on the Leonardo: while (!Serial) { ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for Leonardo only }

Here is a test sketch to determine if the SPI is working ok.http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,143488.msg1077510.html#msg1077510It should work ok with the SD card in the slot. Does it work ok on your setup?